Remember Spooky? The beautiful fawn/white spotted boy I posted trying to figure out what breed he was?
We had to euthenize the poor boy yesterday. We had taken him to the vet to get his full work up and be neutered and learned some very disturbing things about his health.
Number 1) Once we had him on the table and could get a better look at him, our vet thought him closer to 9 years old, not 4 or 5 like the person told us.
Number 2) We had named him spooky because he would shy away and generally was.. spooky. He spooked easily and loud noises and fast movements towards him scared him badly. We found out why- he's almost completely blind. She thought he could see some.. but not much, and not well.
Number 3) Remember how I mentioned his "alligator snapping"? Where he would clip his jaws together rapidily and hard, almost like he was snapping, or barking silently? The vet watched him do it and believed it to be neurological. That coupled with the way he held himself made her believe that he had something seriously wrong with his brain. she thought that also might be the reason he was going blind.
Number 4) He was HW positive.. and I don't mean mildly. I mean heavy, heavy, heavy. I mean, the vet gasped when she took his test. I was standing in front of her after she snapped it shut and was watching the dots appear, and she had taken a sip from her coffee cup and I saw her eyes get wide and she spit her coffee back into the cup. Apparently, the first circle that doesnt even show up on most positive dogs, the one that means "Seriously pack your bags infected" showed up before the control one did.
We had already knocked him out in preperation for his neuter, but in light of all his tests the vet asked me if instead of neutering him, I would like to go ahead and let him cross and not have to put him through all of the crap it would take to get him even remotely healthy. I sat there and stroked his head which I had never been able to do until he was drugged and it only took me a few minutes to decide. So for the second time in 10 days I euthenized one of the rescues here. I've done it three times in 10 years- the first one being 7 years ago, but now two in 10 days. It's horrendous. I held him and kissed him while he was euthenized and then we drove his body to the humane society to be cremated there- they have this AMAZING memorial garden where they sprinkle the ashes- its a huge koi pond and water fall with statues and memorial stones and lots of plants and flowers and poems. It has its own rainbow bridge that you carry the ashes over before you sprinkle them in the pond. Its very beautiful.
So goodbye Spooky- Run free and wild aross the bridge, healthy and happy now, and we'll all curse the people who couldn't be bothered with a $15 dollar pill every month to keep you from getting heartworms, and yearly vet appointments.
